Social hostilities over religious attire were found in 50 countries (25%), more than 3 times that of five years earlier when such incidents were reported in 14 countries (7%), according to the Pew Research Center.

World Hijab (veil) Day in Pakistan, 9/4/13 (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Religion and dress is a hot topic, especially for women. On Saturday the Miss World contest was forced to move from near Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, to the island of Bali because protests over the pageant's skimpy attire by the Islamic Defenders Front were feared to possibly turn violent.

It's not just men who take to the streets in support of modest dress. Earlier this month, supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami held a rally to observe the World Hijab (veil) Day in Islamabad. Scores of the party's female supporters wearing veils gathered to advocate the necessity of veil for the Muslim women (see photo). To coincide with the event, a major medical university in Pakistan began requiring female students to wear the hijab when treating males.

Government Regulations VaryOn one end of the spectrum, governments require religious dress. For instance, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan require women to cover.

For instance, a Sudanese woman, Amira Osman Hamed, reportedly was to stand trial on this month for refusing to wear a hijab, the scarf worn by many Muslim women to cover their hair. According to The Huffington Post, Hamed was charged with violating a Sudanese law that states, “Whoever does in a public place an indecent act or an act contrary to public morals or wears an obscene outfit or contrary to public morals or causing an annoyance to public feelings shall be punished with flogging which may not exceed forty lashes or with fine or with both.”

Some governments that formerly restricted head coverings for women are shifting their policies. For instance, in an effort to win support from Islamist groups, Syrian President Bashar Assad reversed a decision that bans teachers from wearing the niqab (face veil) in 2011 .

At the other end of the spectrum, Turkey has not permitted government workers to wear headscarves, though it appears this policy is in the process of being changed. In Tunisia, women may not wear headscarves or full veils in public buildings or schools, though since the Arab Spring revolution, pressure is mounting to change this policy. A number of other governments have banned or are moving to ban the veil. The Russian Supreme Court has upheld a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves to school in southern Russia.

In the U.K., a senior minister said this past week that the government should consider banning Muslim girls from wearing veils in public places such as schools. And France addressed the issue by reminding all students in state schools that they may not wear religious garb such as headscarves or crucifixes in a 15-point written statement being posted on school walls.

In Quebec, Canada, this month the Parti Quebecois government proposed a ban on religious clothing for public employees including at schools, hospitals and courthouses. The "Charter of Values,” if adopted, would prohibit public servants from wearing hijabs, kippas, turbans or large crucifixes. The proposal has reportedly triggered aggression against Muslim women wearing such headscarves.

Employment IssuesRestrictions on religious dress also occur in employment. Just last week, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch was fined for not accommodating their store's dress code to allow a Muslim female employee to wear a headscarf. (Also see Bloomberg Businessweek coverage).

Employment discrimination over religious dress affects not only Muslims. For instance, earlier this year the European Court of Human Rights found that there had been a violation of religious freedom in the case involving a British Airways employee who was barred from visibly wearing Christian crosses around her neck while at work.

Recently in the U.S.A recent increase in school bullying in the New York City school is reported to include students pulling off Sikh turbans and Muslim headscarves. And in Niagara, NY, last week, several 16-year-old girls are facing charges for assaulting a 17-year-old Muslim girl wearing as headscarf leaving a mosque.

Global PatternIn one way or another, an increasing number of governments regulate the wearing of religious symbols or attire, such as head coverings for women or facial hair for men. The Pew Research Center’s latest report on global restrictions on religion finds that, as of 2011, 53 of the 198 countries included in the study (27%) have such restrictions, up from 21 countries (11%) in 2007.

But the increase in social hostilities is even more dramatic. Social hostilities over religious attire were found in 50 countries (25%), more than 3 times more than five years earlier when such incidents were reported in 14 countries (7%), according to the Pew Research Center.

While there may not be a direct causal connection between government regulations and social hostilities involving religious attire, Pew Research data show that harassment of women over religious dress occurs more often in countries where the wearing of religious symbols and attire are regulated by any level of government.

For more on connections between social hostilities & government restrictions, see my TEDx Talk.

The Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shababclaimed responsibility for the horrific attack of hundreds of innocent civilians at a Nairobi shopping mall on Saturday, saying that the bloody rampage, which has killed at least 60, is retribution for Kenya’s military presence in Somalia. "Pretending to be Muslim, hiding in a box and using the blood of a shooting victim were among the ways that potential victims escaped death" at the mall, according to the New York Times.The Pew Research Center observes that, rather than being an isolated event, the terrorist attack is part of Kenya’s sharp rise in religious hostilities.And a continent away, a terror attack on a church in northwestern Pakistan killed nearly 80 people on Sunday. The New York Times reports that is is part of a recent wave of attacks on religious minorities, including Shiite Muslims. For instance, In March, a mob in the eastern city of Lahore burned two churches and more than 100 houses. Sunni extremists and sometimes the Pakistani Taliban are behind the attacks. Pakistani Christians are also often accused of blasphemy under the country's strict blasphemy laws.

Kenya: Cross-national DimensionsThere have been some reports that the Nairobi mall militants are from several different countries. Kenya and Somalia are two of 51 countries where religion-related terrorist groups engaged in cross-border attacks or drew on international connections for support between 2009 and 2011, according to a related Pew Research analysis.The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab, which controls portions of Somalia, to be a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda and says that al-Shabab has targeted non-Muslims and those who have converted from Islam to other religions. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, al-Shabab is “fighting for the creation of a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia.” The number of people killed in religion-related terrorist attacks in Kenya has dramatically increased in recent years. According to reports analyzed by the Pew Research Center as part of our ongoing global study of religious restrictions and hostilities, more than 300 people were killed, injured or displaced as a result of religion-related terrorist attacks in Kenya in 2012, more than twice as many as in 2011 and more than a five-fold increase from 2010.In general, social hostilities involving religion, defined by Pew Research as concrete acts of religious violence ranging from hate crimes to religion-related terrorism and war, are much higher in Kenya than in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. In 2012, Kenya had nearly four times the level of social hostilities (8.3 on a scale of 10) as the median level among the 48 countries in the region (2.1). The Pew Research Social Hostilities Index takes into account the level and intensity of hostilities, including sectarian violence, religion-related mob violence and so-called honor killings, where the perpetrators are motivated by religion. In a March Pew Research survey, roughly half of Kenyans (55%) said Islamic extremist groups pose a major threat to their country.Pakistan: World's Highest Levels of Religious HostilitiesA recent Pew Research study finds that Pakistan had the highest level of social hostilities in the world across the five years of the study. Indeed, Pakistan was the first country to score 10 out of 10 points on either of the restrictions indexes, signifying the presence of all 13 types of hostilities measured by the study. Not only was each of the 13 types of social hostilities involving religion present in Pakistan in 2011, but each was present at the highest level measured by the index. This includes religion-related war and terrorism, mob violence and sectarian conflict, hostility over religious conversion, harassment of women for violating religious dress codes, and all six types of malicious acts and crimes inspired by religious bias: harassment and intimidation; displacement from homes; destruction of religious property; abductions; physical abuse; and killings.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often used as justification for social aggression. For instance, in Pakistan, the government makes blasphemy - remarks or actions considered to be critical of God - punishable by imprisonment or death. On the social side, assassins killed two prominent Pakistani politicians – Shahbaz Bhatti (at the time the only Catholic government minister) and Salman Taseer (the governor of Punjab and a Muslim) – when they spoke out against the blasphemy law.

Indeed, Muslims are also often prosecuted under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. For instance, Pakistani police are investigating Sherry Rehman, the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, on blasphemy charges.If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.

And on March 18, the New York Times reported that mobs burned down a Pakistani Christian village near Lahore, also related to allegations of blasphemy. Lahore is also the site of a 2010 massacre of Pakistani Ahmadiyyas, who are considered apostates by Pakistani law.

See my TEDx Talk for a discussion of global patterns of social hostilities involving religion.

As the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) takes up the issue of religious harassment and persecution in its 24 Sept. meeting in Warsaw, dozens are dead and scores injured as members of the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab attacked an upscale shopping mall in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

And the following incidents occurred just in the past week:• Sectarian riots 127 km northwest of India's capital New Delhi killed at least 31 people and forced hundreds to flee from their homes in a sign of rising tension between Hindus and Muslims. Mehrana, a 6-year-old girl injured in the sectarian clashes (pictured), gets treatment at a district hospital in Muzaffarnagar.

Here are 6 findings from the Pew Research Center about harassment of religious groups as the OSCE and others grapple with this issue (see point 6 for details on Europe).

1. As the incidents from last week mentioned above show, harassment and intimidation by governments or social groups take many forms, including physical assaults, arrests and detentions, the desecration of holy sites and discrimination against religious groups in employment, education and housing. Harassment and intimidation also include such things as verbal assaults on members of one religious group by other groups or individuals.

2. Overall, across the five years of the Pew Research study, religious groups were harassed in a total of 185 countries at one time or another. Adherents of the world’s two largest religious groups, Christians and Muslims – who together comprise more than half of the global population – were harassed in the largest number of countries, 145 and 129 respectively. Jews, who comprise less than 1% of the world’s population, experienced harassment in a total of 90 countries, while members of other world faiths were harassed in a total of 75 countries.

3. Harassment or intimidation of specific religious groups occurred in 160 countries in 2011, the same number as in the year ending in mid-2010, according to the Pew Research study. In 2011, government or social harassment of Muslims was reported in 101 countries; the previous high was 96 countries in the first year of the study. Jews were harassed in 69 countries in 2011, about the same as the year before (68 countries, which was the previous high). As noted above, harassment of Christians continued to be reported in the largest number of countries (105), although this represented a decrease from the previous year (111).

4. In 2011, some religious groups were more likely to be harassed by governments, while others were more likely to be harassed by individuals or groups in society. Jews, for instance, experienced social harassment in many more countries (63) than they faced government harassment (28), according to the Pew Research study. Similarly, followers of folk and traditional faiths faced social harassment in four times the number of countries (21) as they faced government harassment (5). By contrast, members of other world faiths, such as Sikhs and Baha’is, were harassed by some level of government in about twice as many countries (39) as they were by groups or individuals in society (18).

5. Government or societal initiatives to reduce religious restrictions or hostilities were reported in 150 of 198 countries, or 76% of all the countries and territories studied. The most common types of initiatives, in descending order of prevalence, were: interfaith dialogue; efforts to combat or redress religious discrimination; educational and training initiatives; and land- or property-related initiatives. For examples of each type, see the full Pew Research analysis.

6. In Europe, Muslims and Christians faced harassment by government officials or policies in the largest share of countries in 2011 (49% and 36% respectively), while Jews and Muslims faced harassment by individuals or groups in society in the largest share of countries (69% and 64% respectively).

For instance, the European Court of Human Rights recently found that British law does not adequately protect an employee’s right to display religious symbols in the workplace – such as wearing a cross. In France, a Rabbi and several Jewish school children were gunned down in a brazen act of terror. In Russia, the Mayor of Moscow has limited the number of mosques to four despite a growing Muslim population, which numbers more than 1 million due to migration. This means – per mosque – hundreds of thousands of people would have to squeeze into spaces meant only for hundreds.

Finally, although it is much more common for Jews to be harassed by individuals and groups in society, there has been a fivefold increase in the number of countries where government harassment occurred. Government harassment of Jews occurred in 22% of European countries in 2011, up from 4% in 2007.

For a discussion of global social hostilities involving religion and government restrictions on religion with Europe's place in relation to other regions, see my TEDx Talk.

In Russia last week, the threat of U.S. missiles targeting Syria in retaliation for the regime's alleged use of chemical weapons weighed heavily on world leaders meeting for the G-20 summit n St. Petersburg, eclipsing economic battles that usually dominate the summit.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been a vocal critic of U.S. plans to intervene in the affairs of Syria, an ally of Russia, and home to a Russian naval base - Russia's last remaining military facility outside the former Soviet Union.

Though religious connections between Russia and Syria are not central to the dispute, several commentators have noted the connection between faith communities in the two countries. Though Syria is predominantly Muslim, it has a substantial number of people belonging to the Christian Orthodox Church, the majority faith of Russia, and a church with considerable influence in the government. Walter Russell Mead notes in a recent blog post:

Russia’s concern for Syrian Christians is also nothing new. Although the Communists were more interested in hounding and enslaving religious believers than protecting them, under the czars Russia was officially recognized by the Ottoman sultans as the protector of Orthodox Christians throughout the Turkish empire. In the 18th and 19th century Russian concern for these Christians (married to a concern for its geopolitical ambitions) frequently shaped Russian policy towards the Ottomans and the West. The Crimean War at one point brought Russia into war with Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire over a quarrel between Russia and France over their rights to represent and protect Ottoman Christians in the Holy Land.

Here are 2 things to know about religion in Russia from recent Pew Research studies.

1. Straddling Europe and Asia, Russia could be considered the most populous Christian-majority country on both continents.

But for the purposes of a recent Pew Research report, Russia is considered a European nation. Its 105 million Christians constitute the world’s fourth-largest Christian population (and the single largest outside the Americas). About 5% of the world’s Christians live in Russia. Moreover, Russia is home to the largest autocephalous (or ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Church in the world, the Russian Orthodox Church.

Byzantine monks first introduced Christianity into Russia in the 9th century. Following his baptism in 988, Vladimir I, the prince of Kiev, led his people into Christianity. The Eastern Orthodox Church has remained the largest religious institution in Russia despite monumental changes in the country’s political system, from monarchy, to Soviet communism, to the current parliamentary and presidential system. Today, a little more than 70% of Russia’s population identifies as Orthodox.

While Orthodox Christianity is still the dominant religion in Russia, other Christian traditions have grown in recent decades. Outside of the Orthodox Church, Protestants constitute the largest Christian group, with nearly 3 million adherents. A large segment of the Russian population does not identify as Christian, including many who are unaffiliated with any particular religion. According to a 2011 Pew Forum report, Russia has the largest Muslim population in Europe (in absolute numbers).

2. Russia has the largest Muslim population in absolute numbers in all of Europe.

According to a report by the Pew Research Center, the number of Muslims in Russia is projected to increase from about 16.4 million in 2010 to about 18.6 million in 2030. The Muslim share of the country’s population is expected to increase from 11.7% in 2010 to 14.4% in 2030.

The growth rate for the Muslim population in the Russian Federation is projected to be 0.6% annually over the next two decades. By contrast, Russia’s non-Muslim population is expected to shrink by an average of 0.6% annually over the same 20-year period.

Several factors contribute to the projected growth of Russia’s Muslim population. For instance, Muslim women generally have more children than other women in Russia (an estimated 2.3 children per woman, compared with a national average of fewer than 1.5 children per woman). Higher Muslim fertility is directly related to the fact that Muslim women marry in larger numbers and divorce less often than other women in Russia. This means they spend longer periods of their lives in unions where childbearing is more likely. And although the abortion rate in Russia is still among the highest in the world, research suggests that Muslim women have fewer abortions on average than other women in Russia.

Another reason the Muslim population in Russia is expected to increase is that nearly half of the country’s Muslims are under age 30, according to an analysis of data from Russia’s 2002 census. By comparison, about 40% of ethnic Russians are in this age group. Nearly a quarter of Russia’s Muslims (22.8%) are under age 15, compared with roughly one-in-six ethnic Russians (15.9%).

On the older end of the age spectrum, about 27% of Russia’s Muslims are age 45 and older, compared with about 38% of ethnic Russians. And 13.1% of Muslims in Russia are age 60 and older, compared with nearly a fifth of the ethnic Russian population (19.1%).

The Muslim population in Russia is geographically concentrated in a few regions. As of 2009, four-in-five Muslims in Russia resided in two of the seven federal districts, the Volga and Southern districts. Among the 89 sub-regions of Russia in 2009, Muslims were concentrated in five traditionally Muslim homelands: Dagestan (16.3% of all Muslims), Bashkortostan (14.6%), Tatarstan (13.5%), Chechnya (7.4%) and Kabardino- Balkaria (4.7%). Smaller numbers of Muslims lived in three other Muslim homelands: Ingushetia (3.0% of all Muslims), Karachaevo-Cherkessia (1.9%) and Adygea (0.8%). Altogether, about two-thirds of all Muslims in Russia (62.3%) resided in one of the traditionally Muslim homelands.

Moscow has become a migration magnet for people from elsewhere in Russia, as well as beyond Russia. More than 600,000 Muslims reside in Moscow (3.7% of all Muslims in Russia) and an additional 517,000 live in the oil-rich Tyumen region (3.0%), which borders Kazakhstan to the south.

For a discussion of global social hostilities involving religion and government restrictions on religion, with Russia's place in relation to other countries, see my TEDx Talk.

As the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Syria mounts in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime of Basheer Assad, Pope Francis calls for prayer and fasting for peace. Pope Francis encouraged people to gather on Sept. 7 from 7 PM until midnight in St Peter’s Square, and also invited non-Catholics to participate in ways they feel are appropriate, according to Vatican Radio.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama laid out the case for limited military action against Syrian regime targets as a result of their alleged use of chemical weapons that killed over one thousand people - including hundreds of children. Syrian authorities deny their involvement and, in a BBC interview, said that any US military action against Syria would amount to "support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates."

As the tensions continue to mount in the two-year civil war that began during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, here are three things to know about religion and religious freedom in Syria from recent Pew Research studies.

1. Syria is more religiously diverse than you might think

Shia Muslims account for 15-20% of Muslims

Syria's 2010 population was slightly more than 20 million, with Muslims accounting for 93% (19 million), Christians 5% (1 million) and the religiously unaffiliated 2% (.4 million), according to Pew Research estimates.

While Syria's population is largely Muslim, Sunni and Shia Muslim communities contribute to its diversity. By comparison, Egypt is less diverse because its Muslim population is almost entirely Sunni, while Christians make up a similar share according to Pew Research estimates. (See more about Egypt.)

Sunni Muslims in Syria number between 15-16 million, while Shia Muslims, mostly belonging to the Alawite sect, number between 3-4 million. Although the Alawites are a numerical minority, they control many of the mechanisms of power within the country. According to the U.S. State Department, for instance, the "Alawi sect, of which President Assad and his family are members, continued to hold an elevated political status disproportionate to its numbers, including in the military and other security services."

Among Christians, approximately 590,000 are Orthodox, 430,000 are Catholic and 40,000 belong to various Protestant denominations. Syria is famous in Christian history for being the location of St. Paul's conversion in Aleppo.

2. The Syrian civil war has increasingly fallen along sectarian lines, threatening Majorities and Minorities alike

A June 2013 Pew Research report noted that the ongoing civil war in Syria, which began as a protest against the regime of President Assad, now falls largely along sectarian lines. There are also some indications that the sectarian dimensions of the conflict have spilled across borders. For instance, Hezbollah - a Shia Muslim group designated as a terrorist organization by several governments - reportedly crossed into Syria from Lebanon to join the ongoing civil war on the side of the regime led by President Assad. The coalition of rebel forces seeking to topple the regime, however, is largely Sunni Muslim.

Smaller religious minorities are also caught up in the Syrian conflict. For instance, in April two Orthodox Christian bishops were kidnapped by gunmen in Aleppo, Syria. They are still being held. And, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, ancient Catholic and Orthodox communities are finding themselves on the wrong side of an increasingly sectarian conflict, threatening their very survival. Indeed, reports indicate that the uncertain future of Syrian Christians is one shared by many historic Christian communities across the Middle East.

3. Syria has among the world's highest government restrictions on religion

Syria has among the highest levels of government restrictions on religion, ranking 9th most restrictive worldwide, according to the most recent Pew Research report. Government restrictions in Syria included active use of force against religious groups; very high favoritism of Shia Islam above others; prohibitions on Muslims converting from Islam to other religions; and restrictions on religious literature or broadcasting.

In particular, the Syrian "government increased its targeting and surveillance of members of faith groups it deemed a threat, including members of the country’s Sunni majority," according to the U.S.State Department.

For a discussion on the association between social hostilities and government restrictions, see my TEDx Talk.